Overall

This rating is the expert's opinion on the overall appeal of the hotel. As well as taking in to account the category ratings, it will reflect other factors, such as the hotel's atmosphere.

Location

This rating shows how appealing the hotel is for a leisure traveller. For example, for a city hotel it will take in to account how convenient the hotel's location is for sights, restaurants and public transport.

Value for money

This rating shows how good value the hotel is compared with other hotels of similar standard in that destination.

Leisure facilities

This rating reflects the extent and quality of facilities on offer, such as a swimming pool, spa, bikes for hire, or perhaps the hotel's own guided tours.

Where there is no rating, this is because the hotel doesn't offer the service or facility.

Best for Families - Expert review of Hotel Flora

Last updated 20 January 2011

Book well ahead to get a room in this family-friendly three-star a short walk from St Mark's.

Run by the hotelier Romanelli family – their other place is the Novecento Boutique Hotel – the Flora is eternally popular, for its great position no distance at all from St Mark’s, its lovely leafy courtyard and its charming owners and staff.

Location:

Leading off in the direction of the Grand Canal from the glam designer shops of Calle Largo XXII Marzo is narrow Calle Bergamaschi where this 43-room hotel is located. St Mark’s is five minutes’ walk away, but though thronging XXII Marzo is just metres off, this is a quiet little corner, delightfully situated overlooking Ca’ Contarina Fasan, the Grand Canal-side palazzo which locals – for no particular reason – refer to as the house of Desdemona, the cruelly wronged wife of Othello in Shakespeare’s play.

Bedrooms:

Although all of the Flora’s rooms have been given the individual-but-similar classic Venetian décor treatment, sizes and standards vary wildly: contact the helpful staff to make sure you really are going to get the accommodation you’d like. Standard doubles can be so small that even opening the wardrobe is difficult, and the bathrooms are barely large enough to dry yourself when you sidle out of the shower. Larger garden-facing rooms are the most sought-after, both for the view and for the quiet.

Perhaps because manager Gioele Romanelli has young children himself, families with small kids are particularly well treated here: one child up to 12 can stay free with parents in a double room, and a free children’s tea is thrown into the package. Family rooms with cots, changing tables and high chairs can be provided. But the Flora attracts all kinds of travellers – many of them returning for a second (or more) stay – who like to be in the centre of things.